Author: DEUS NGOWI
AfricaPress-Tanzania: ARUSHA Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS) Richard Kwitega has called for concerted effort among stakeholders in environmental conservation and tourismpromotion.
Mr Kwitega is of the opinion that Arusha, the Northern Circuit Tourism Gateway and the rest of the country, stands to benefit a lot if local people participate in environmental conservation and tourism promotion, especially in the post-Covid-19 pandemic stint.
With more than 20 per cent of the region’s income coming from tourism, Mr Kwitega noted besides tourists coming to view animals in Arusha National Park and others, cultural tourism could as well pay and people could sell ornaments much loved by foreigners and increase their incomes.
With 23 divisions, Arusha Region has more than 2.5 million people going, according to the 2012 population census and the main activity in the region is agriculture and cattle rearing in small holders as well as in ranches. Industries also contribute a lot to employment as well as incomes for individuals and in taxes to the government.
“We urge all stakeholders to come together, having conquered the Covid-19. It is high time we came back to business, promote tourism and ensure we conserve the environment for the ecosystem,” said Mr Kwitega who was speaking with members of the Journalists’ Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET).
The members’ tour of Burunge Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was supported by the United State Agency for International Development (USAID). The field visit was preceded by three-day training to 30 journalists across the country in biodiversity conservation reporting, which built their capacity to communicate biodiversity conservation messages and raising awareness and passion for reporting conservation issues.
Mr Kwitega said tourism was a very important sector to the economy of the region and country generally and was optimistic that a lot of foreigners would be attracted to the zone due to unique attractions as well as upgraded hotels and the efficiency of tour operators.
The RAS called for more tour guides and porters to engage in learning foreign languages such as Chinese, adding that the knowledge of English and Kiswahili was not enough. He expressed his happiness that some of them, even chefs had begun the exercise that would ultimately see more Chinese and other people from Far East jet in the country for tourism purposes.
